Controlled release and efficient loading continue to be challenges in the area of drug delivery vehicles. Composite hydrogel material comprised of temperature-sensitive copolymers, N-isopropylacrylamide and acrylamide, embedded with gold nanoparticles (GNPs,) bearing a gold sulfide nanoshell designed to absorb and convert near-IR light to heat are known for drug release (Sershen et al., Journal of Biomedical Materials Research 2000, 51, (3), 293-298). Another example of using gold nanoparticles for triggered drug release relies on liposomal nanoparticles composed 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, 1-palmitoyl-2-hydroxy-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine and 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanol-amine-N-[carboxy(polyethylene glycol)-2000]. Such liposomes, when loaded with both GNPs and the hydrophilic drug calcein, leads to light controlled calcein release due to microbubble cavitation of the liposome membrane upon treatment with 532 nm (Mathiyazhakan et al., Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 2015, 126, 569-574). Synthetic materials have been developed and explored, proteins have attracted attention due to the fine molecular and conformational control of sequence and structure. Recently, GNPs have been decorated with a library of cationic groups that complex non-covalently with green fluorescent protein (GFP) (De et al., Nat Chem 2009, 1, (6), 461-465). These GFP•GNP complexes have been employed in an array to chemically detect human serum proteins in complex serum. In this case, the strategy for construction of such protein•GNP hybrids rely on the covalent or non-covalent linkage of chemically pre-fabricated GNPs (Stevens et al., Advanced Materials 2004, 16, (11), 915-918; Slocik et al., Nano Letters 2002, 2, (3), 169-173); such GNPs are synthesized under bio-incompatible and harsh conditions including high temperatures, organic solvents and need of external capping agents.